Published 4:00 am, Monday, November 29, 2004

2004-11-29 04:00:00 PDT Beijing -- Rescue teams were trying to push through miles of rubble- and smoked- filled tunnels Sunday to save as many as 141 miners trapped after a gas explosion blasted through a coal mine in central China.

Rescue workers recovered 25 bodies and said 141 other miners remained deep underground. Based on experience, authorities said, there was little hope that the blocked-in miners could be rescued. As a result, the mine disaster appeared to be China's worst in recent years.

The explosion occurred Sunday about 7:20 a.m. at the government-owned Chenjiashen Coal Mine near Tongchuan, a medium-size city in Shaanxi province about 450 miles southwest of Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency and other government-controlled Chinese media.

When the blast erupted, 293 miners were working underground, some in distant shafts, authorities told the agency. Of those, 127 quickly made their way to safety, some suffering badly from having inhaled carbon monoxide, local officials reported. But those working farthest from the entrance were unable to get out, they said.

Rescue workers who tried to push through rubble into distant shafts were forced to turn back because of carbon monoxide gas, Zhao Tiechui, deputy head of the government's Production Safety Bureau, told reporters on the scene. All communications inside the mine were severed by the blast, he said, leading officials to fear the worst.

In a similar blast last month at the Daping mine in Henan province, 148 miners were trapped behind rubble and smoke. After several days of rescue efforts, authorities declared them dead. Another Henan mine was hit by an explosion this month, killing 33 workers.

Provincial officials in Shaanxi, a main Chinese coal producing area, went to the scene of Sunday's blast to direct rescue operations and express concern. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao also urged authorities to do all they could to rescue anyone left alive inside the smoke-filled mine, government television said.

"We must not only find out all the details of the disaster and seriously get to the root of who is responsible," Wen told reporters in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, where he was attending a regional conference. "In addition, we must make efforts to take safety and prevention measures."

The government in Beijing, along with provincial governments in mining areas, repeatedly has vowed to crack down on unsafe mines and increase inspections to make sure owners provide proper ventilation. Officials have cited statistics indicating the number of mining fatalities has dropped by about 10 percent in 2004 because of their efforts.

Nonetheless, they acknowledge, more than 4,000 Chinese miners were killed in the first nine months of this year. According to industry calculations, that rate means China's mining industry has remained the world's most dangerous.

The frequent disasters have threatened to become a political problem for Hu's government. Many Chinese express the belief that the disasters result in part from collusion between profit-hungry owners and dishonest officials who look the other way at unsafe operating conditions.

"Who should protect miners' safety?" asked an anonymous critic who posted his complaint on the Xinhua news agency Web site. "If the relevant high officials are not dismissed, popular outrage will not be pacified."

China's 9 percent economic growth rate, accompanied by a need for ever- larger amounts of electricity, has sent the demand for coal on a swift rise in recent years. Despite efforts to switch to natural gas, coal remains the chief fuel for producing electricity and heating homes.